Event Access Control

One of the most popular use cases for codeREADr is the validation & tracking of tickets at venues and events. We currently have over 100 ticketing companies and hundreds of event technology providers using codeREADr – and that number is growing rapidly.

Best Practices

We’ve written a detailed document outlining some of the best ways to set up these types of services. As we often do, we published it to our blog. We also published a YouTube video with app screenshots (see below) to quickly show you the workflow and features of the app.

Ultra-fast scanning

Validate tickets online or offline

Scanning from different devices at multiple entrances requires connectivity to an online database to catch all duplicate scans. However, Internet connectivity isn’t always stable so we offer both an online to offline fallback option and primary services in the offline validation mode, i.e. validation and syncing to an ‘on-device’ database.

Auto-Sync

With an on-device database scans are instantly validated against a database downloaded to iOS and Android devices because there’s no connection latency. What’s special about auto-sync is that scans from all devices are automatically uploaded (‘posted’) to a shared online database and the synced database is automatically downloaded to each device. The default setting for posting scans is every two (2) seconds. The default setting for downloading databases is every two (2) minutes.

Both processes are completed in the background so the person scanning tickets can keep scanning without interruption. If connectivity is completely lost, then the scans are queued and synced when connectivity is restored.

Use our servers or yours

You can upload your ticket IDs to our servers via the Web UI or APIs. Alternatively you can use your own servers for validation (Direct Scan to URL or PostbackURL).

Validate ticket + photo for entry or re-entry

With photo postback you can reduce lost revenue from unauthorized ticket sharing of high value, VIP access or multi-day tickets. It can be integrated with your existing ticketing and access control system or independently deployed as a stand-alone service for any event(s).

An attendant at the venue uses codeREADr to scan a patron’s ticket with an iOS or Android device and then takes their photo. The ticket ID and photo are linked and stored in your own Dropbox folder. When the ticket is scanned by codeREADr upon entry or re-entry, it’s validated and the stored photo presented to the attendant for visual verification.

Photo postback can be used as a stand-alone service complementing existing access control services or together with codeREADr’s standard ticket scanning & validation service for first-entry access control. Photo postback doesn’t require access to or integration with the event’s ticket database.

RFID/NFC wristbands and tags

Use NFC-enabled Android devices to tap RFID/NFC wristbands and tags for issuing, tracking & validation. Alternatively use a USB-to-microUSB adapter to connect a discrete RFID/NFC reading pad to Android phones & tablets. Below is a video of both in action with the codeREADr app. Issuing Wristbands- Instructions.

Extended Validation Options

To Valid, Invalid and Invalid Duplicate we added secondary conditional validations in real time, including setting min/max scan counts based on duration, start/end periods and day ranges. Examples include:

* Tickets good only on certain days of the week, repeating each week.* Tickets good only on certain dates* Tickets good only at certain times* One ticket good for defined number of scans, whether for entry, merchandise, transportation or other value

No barcodes? No problem!

Scanning barcodes is fast but, it’s certainly not the only way to use codeREADr. Many clients instead use Magstripe readers or RFID/NFC to capture ticket IDs or use the app’s Manual Entry or Lookup options.

No ticket original database? You no longer need one!

You can now use codeREADr’s pattern matching ‘Scan Mask’ technology with a blank database or a partial database (i.e. not all ticket IDs are in the database because of last minute sales, etc.). Simply create a database name and start scanning. Each scan is added to the blank or partial database but only AFTER being checked if it’s in the database. You can not only check the validity of a ticket but you’ll also catch duplicate tickets. SIMPLE.

Exit and Re-Entry Validation with Adjusted Count of Checked-In Attendees

When an app user scans a ticket with a Check-In service, the status of that barcode value is changed within the validation database itself from its default status 1 (valid) to 0 (invalid). The first time the ticket is scanned it will be Valid but the next time it’s scanned it will be Invalid.

When an app user scans the same ticket with a Check-Out service, the status of that barcode value is changed within the validation database itself from its changed status 0 (invalid) back to 1 (valid).

In this way, when that ticket is later scanned by the Check-In service it will be Valid. The status will again be changed back to 0 (invalid) so the ticket cannot be used again unless re-scanned by the Check-Out service. This allows for multiple re-entries but only when scanned out by the Check-Out service.

A count is provided of the number of people checked-in at the event. This count will subtract checked-out scans from checked-in scans to give a total. This is valuable for capacity monitoring but note that if attendees leave without being checked-out the total will not be accurate.

Note: This is an advanced feature which uses up to 180 API calls internally per minute to cover large events. Therefore you need the 25-Device Plan. If that’s not an option for you, please instead use our standard Database Builder service type.